These Rolo Caramelitas are like a sweet, salty, amazingly delicious oatmeal cookie. Plus they are extremely easy to put together!

Ever since my husband and I first started talking about having another baby at the end of last year, I was hoping I’d have a girl.

With Jon David, I wanted a boy desperately. Boys are basically tiny men, which are easy to figure out. Give them good food and lots of love and they will pretty much cherish you forever.

But this go around, I wanted a girl.

Someone to dress up, and read Fancy Nancy with, and have tea parties and watch Beauty and the Beast.

Someone who (hopefully) wouldn’t abandon me for fishing trips and target practice with their dad on lazy Saturdays.

Someone who won’t roll their eyes when I want to stop by the mall to look for earrings or a cute new top.

However.

I realized something the other night that almost made me pee myself with fear (not that peeing myself these days is very difficult — I mean, I’ve found myself having to cross my legs tightly every time I sneeze).

I realized that this baby girl is going to grow up.

She’s going to grow up and want to shave her legs and wear lipstick.

Hairy boys are going to want to take her in their cars (aka DEATH TRAPS) for a date.

There will be BRA SHOPPING.

Honestly, I don’t know if I can handle this. Because if you think MEN are bad about being protective of their little girls…you haven’t met me yet.

In our house, I am the one you answer to.

I’m already planning ways to scare off potential suitors. I’d like to say that all of these plans are within the boundaries of the law, but I’m not sure how police feel about grenades and super sharp swords.

(Obviously, I plan on deleting this blog post in sixteenish years, on the off chance that some scrawny kid with a pubescent mustache and fuzzy navel wine coolers is found grenaded to death)

Is it too late to become Amish? I mean, are they taking new members? I have a ton of their cookbooks and I have to say, I am a fan. Pies and comforting casseroles are something I can definitely get behind.

Sigh.

In other, completely unrelated news, can you believe that until recently, I had NEVER had a Carmelita?

It’s a shame. They’re basically oatmeal cookies times infinity awesome. But I decided they needed Rolos. Rolos are caramel, Carmelitas are carameley…it just makes sense, yes?

These are one of the BEST and easiest treats I have made in a very long time. If you’re having company over and want tons of compliments, throw a pan of these together!!

n a large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add melted butter and stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed (mixture will be very thick, I mixed with my hands towards the end). Press half the mixture into your prepared pan and bake for 17 minutes.

Remove the pan from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Then evenly cover with caramel sauce. Sprinkle entire bag of Rolos over the top, as evenly as possible. Crumble the rest of the oat mixture over the Rolo/caramel mixture and bake for 17 more minutes.

Remove from oven and cool for several hours before cutting into squares and serving.

2.6

Notes:

If you want to use regular sized Rolos, you can, they’ll just be a bit bigger and need to be unwrapped. Just use enough to get a good sprinkling across the top…you want a few in every bar.

My husband and the members of my church went CRAZY for these (and if you lie in church, you burst into flames, so I’m preeeeety sure they must have really loved these). I’ll be making them again in the very near future.

So, I’ve had this grand idea that I’d get caught up on sleep before the baby gets here.

You know…sleep in during the Summer mornings when there is no school. Take naps. Enjoy the luxury of a quiet house with a son who is almost 8 years old.

It turns out that sleeping attracts children like moths to a porch light. I would get less of a reaction if I was baking cupcakes and passing out free toys.

I haven’t been sleeping so great at night — the baby kicks, I have to pee three millionty times, and I get calf cramps that make me want to punch life. So the other afternoon, I decided to close my eyes for a half hour or so and take a much needed power nap.

Five minutes in, I smelled something very near to my nostrils.

I quickly identified it as Cheez It breath, which is honestly my arch nemesis. There really should be a law about brushing your teeth immediately after consuming cheese flavored crackers.

Anyways, I opened my eyes and there was Jon David, 2 inches from my face, just staring.

Of course, I got mad. And because Trying To Take A Nap Mad equals three times the mad of Normal Doing Daily Activities Mad, it wasn’t pretty.

Turns out, I shouldn’t have even gotten upset. Jon David was just “checking on me” to “see if I was asleep”.

Isn’t that considerate?

When he isn’t “checking on me” during naps, he is sneaking in my room early in the morning to wake me up (or as he calls it — snuggle). Again, I shouldn’t get mad because according to him “I can’t help it that you are so cozy, mom”.

Obviously, mens cluelessness about the fact that sleep often trumps cuddling begins VERY early in life. Don’t get me wrong — I appreciate that the boy loves a good cuddle, but my goodness I am exhausted.

I wish there was a way to sleep while pretending to do chores, because that would keep my son away for sure. Especially if it involved laundry or toilets. Maybe I’ll close myself in his room and play a recording that sounds like picking up toys.

Since the nap thing isn’t quite working out for me, I decided to make better use of my time and whip up some cupcakes.

Chocolate Cream Pie has been a favorite of my husband’s for years, so I’ve had it in mind as a cupcake flavor for awhile.

Chocolate cupcakes with a graham cracker crumb base, filled with chocolate pudding, and topped with a sturdy meringue.

I’ll be honest — it’s so crazy hot here, my air conditioner can’t keep up. Combine that with my pregnancy, and sometimes getting in the kitchen is unappealing. So…I took the easy route on these — Devil’s Food cake mix and instant pudding all the way. If you want to go a homemade route, use your favorite scratch cake and pudding recipes…but I loved that I could throw these together easily but they still came across as very impressive.

Chocolate cake batter for 24 cupcakes -- either from a mix or your favorite homemade recipe

2 (3.9 oz) boxes instant chocolate pudding

3 cups milk

About 7 sheets graham crackers, crushed into crumbs

Meringue:

5 large egg whites

1 1/2 cups sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 muffin tins with liners.

Cover bottom of baking cups with graham cracker crumbs. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter and bake for about 12 -15 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool completely on a wire rack.

While cupcakes are baking, prepare pudding. Whisk both boxes of pudding and 3 cups milk together in a bowl until it starts to thicken, about 2 minutes. Place in the refrigerator until cupcakes are cool.

Once cupcakes are cool, cut a hole in the top of each cupcake (you want it about 1/2 - 2/3 of the way deep). Fill holes with chocolate pudding (I used a disposable piping bag and piped it in...way easy). Place cupcakes in the refrigerator while preparing the meringue.

In a CLEAN (no greasy residue...the meringue won't rise properly) metal mixing bowl, whisk egg whites and sugar together over a pot of simmering water on the stove until the sugar melts, about 10 minutes. Remove bowl from pot of water and beat with mixer on low for about 5 minutes. Increase mixer speed to high and beat for about 5 minutes more, until fluffy and stiff. Pipe or spoon meringue on cupcakes and brown with a small kitchen torch.

Notes

If you are going to pipe the meringue on HIGH like mine, you will probably want to double the meringue recipe. If you don't want to use that many eggs (it's a LOT), just pipe or spoon on a smaller amount...still impressive!!

2.6

If you need a good kitchen torch, something like THISworks great. I rarely use my torch, but it’s great for browning cooked meringues (which hold up better, pile on high, and don’t shrink or weep), and I’m always glad to have it when I do use it!!